Maine already has one of the least-affordable higher education systems in the U.S., and last week the problem got much worse.

To help shrink the federal budget deficit, the U.S. Congress cut $12 billion from federal student-loan programs and instituted a new formula that caused interest rates to jump.

Students with Stafford loans saw their rates go from 5.3 percent to 7.14 percent on old loans, and 6.8 percent on new loans. A student with $20,000 Stafford loan will pay about $4,800 more over the life of the loan.

Parents who have taken out PLUS loans for their children saw their interest rates climb from 6.1 percent to nearly 8 percent on existing loans and 8.5 percent on new loans. That will cost the average set of parents between $3,000 and $4,000 over the life of their loans.

While the new rates went into effect nationwide, they are a particular problem for Maine, already ranked as having one of the least affordable higher education systems in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the relatively low proportion of Mainers with college degrees is one of the reasons the state’s economy under-performs as a whole.

As a result, many students and parents will need to begin taking a more critical look at their choices.

Where there’s a will there’s a way – that’s what high school guidance counselors and college financial aid offices used to tell students. That meant that with the right combination of scholarships, loans, work and parental help, anyone could afford a college education.

That era, we fear, is over. College costs have skyrocketed and students have been forced to borrow ever larger sums of money. Now, the federal government is, in essence, helping to pay for tax cuts and the war in Iraq on the backs of college students.

Consumers of higher education are going to have to begin making much more difficult cost-benefit decisions.

Students who must borrow $40,000 to attend the school of their choice need to begin asking hard questions. Can they expect to handle those loan payments and other living expenses based on the average starting salary in the career of their choice?

Colleges always discourage such comparisons, but your college advisor won’t be around to help with the loan payments.

Are you likely to obtain a job that pays the bills with a degree in English lit? Social work? Music? History?

For decades we have told students to follow their hearts and interests. Today, they may be following their instincts right into years of debt and financial hardship.